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We're alive, but just like most others holiday plans come first. We have had a few 'lively' (by our standards) discussions of hitches, turbos, auto-x, playing in the mud, and exhausts. Because so many last-gen Impreza mods can be made to Foresters, and because there are so few Forester-specific mods (and aftermarket parts ) I'd venture we get most of our info from the rest of the fora.

schoemf-- Sounds like you're going to be doing the installing yourself? Are you going with the OEM pack? I just had the dealer install mine before taking delivery. I contemplated installing it myself ...and even considered using aftermarket gauges as some have suggested but after thinking about it a bit more, just decided to have it done before delivery because the last wiring job I started, I goofed up so badly that I had to take it to someone else to finish . Doesn't that bin come off with some screws? ....I can't believe that the bin would be too hard to remove but since I've never had it, I can't really comment on how it is removed.

I'm up early on Christmas morning trying to get a few things done ...and fretting about the deep scratch I put in the bumper of the Forester last night as I was closing the garage door.

But *heh* no, I wasn't any help at all. You now got me curious, though, about how the housing does attach to the dash. I might be considering putting in new gauges at some point. The OEM ones are hard to read at night and don't look too sturdy so I'm wondering how long they're going to last. So I'm interested in how I'm going to access the the gauges through the housing when the time comes.

What gauges are you going to be putting in? I really like having both the voltmeter and oil temperature gauges but don't see too much sense in the vacuum gauge that is used in the OEM pack. I've had oil temperature gauges in several cars that I've owned and now can't seem to live without one. My Audi has one factory integrated into the instument cluster and measures the temp in farenheight where the Subaru OEM uses metric ...I sort of wish they were using the same scale. Also, voltmeters are indispensible to me now too ...I really want to monitor the charging system with a gauge.

K, Matt, if you have the chance, let us know how your progression goes with your gauge pack. Thanx.

I'm looking at VDO gauges, but want 43mm size not 52mm. I want a voltmeter, vacuum, & oil pressure (not temp). I have a
'91 miata that has a oil pressure gauge, and drove a Ranger in college that had a voltmeter. Vacuum wouldn't be very useful, but it would be easy to install. Possibly an analog clock would look good as VDO sells some nice ones.

Subaru also sells a DIN size display for compass/air temp/altitude or barometric pressure but it is $220 and my forester already has the compass on the mirror & out temp display below the tach. There are good photos on scoobymods.com of an RS owner with all kinds of dash modifications. The older RS have identical dashes as the '02 foresters.

I think the '03 foresters will share the same platform as the '02 WRX/RS and this won't hold true for next year. If the '03 Foresters have a turbo DOHC EJ20 I'm seriously going to kick myself, but we got a good deal on the '02 and its snowing in Chicago this week! I really wanted a WRX Sportwagon, but my wife can't drive a 5spd and there was no room for us in the cabin, so an auto Forester was a good compromise. I still have a 5spd to drive in the summer I traded in a '99 5spd Maxima.

The factory gauge pod holds a DIN size insert, so I could put in a DVD player or nav system if I was rich & had big $$$$$$
There is a cool DVD player at Best Buy with a foldout screen that would look gool in our Subaru!

Sorry for the long post but I'm excited about finally getting a Subaru! I really wish I would have bought a Legacy 5spd GT instead of the Maxima, but the Max was fast w/ its 3L V6 VQ30DE and 5spd and much nicer interior.

They will be offering a 3 gauge DIN cluster specifically for the WRX early next year. They even will have the proper fittings for oil pressure to use the BSP (British Standard Pipe) thread used for the oil pressure tap. There is currently just a low pressure warning switch on the top of the EJ25 by the alternator.

I did get a chance to take apart the dash yesterday, and found that there is an open 12V & dimmer 12V line attached to the 3-pin connector that serves as ground for the cigarette lighter/12 Volt power adaptor. This could easily power gauges and also add a dimmer function to the backlighting.